Wider Bid for Clean Beaches

For years most of us in Southern California have known enough to stay out of the ocean after rainstorms, especially near the mouths of rivers bringing months of pollutants into the sea from far inland.

But in Orange County, the dry summers too now find health officials posting signs from San Clemente to Seal Beach to warn that swimmers and surfers should stay out of polluted waters. The main cause of contamination is urban runoff.

Last year Los Angeles County enacted rules on some new building projects so that the problem would not become worse. San Diego and Ventura counties have similar requirements. Orange County should follow suit.

Oil, animal waste, pesticides and other pollutants journey from streets, lawns and parking lots into storm drains and waterways to their ultimate destination, the ocean. It’s a quicker journey during the rain, but it doesn’t end when the rain does. The Southern California Coastal Water Research Project reported last year that more than half of the region’s shoreline is unsafe for swimming after rainstorms because of bacteria from urban runoff.

The two regional water quality boards that draw up regulations for Orange County have been studying Los Angeles’ adoption of the new rules last year. Water officials required many new developments to filter out the pollution from the first three-quarters of an inch of rain that falls in a 24-hour period, an amount calculated to represent 85% to 90% of rainfall. Filters can be as basic as grassy swales in a parking lot or separators of water and oil.

Los Angeles builders complained unsuccessfully about the new restrictions. Orange County builders too have objected. They are correct when they say the rules will not reduce current pollution and will add to construction costs. But preventing additional tainting of shoreline waters is important enough to warrant new rules.

The water quality boards should impose standards on Orange County and its cities. There have been enough studies to identify the problem, and there should be no further delay. Nor should those rules be less stringent than those of neighboring counties.